December 07, 2017

A collection of enjoyable books

Trying to get back into the swing of Wednesday book reviewing, here are some books I've read recently that are *enjoyable*, that made me happy and not like I'm living in a satiric dystopia.

I heard about Harry Connolly's A Key, an Egg, an Unfortunate Remark on File770, but by the time I got around to reading it I'd forgotten what people were saying about it and came to it fresh.

It's an urban fantasy, set in Seattle, the hero is a 65-y.o. woman, and "kill the monsters!" is explicitly not the goal. I found it very Pratchett-like: although Connolly describes Marley Jacobs as "a cross between Auntie Mame and Gandalf", I was most forcefully reminded of Granny Weatherwax: Marley uses a *lot* of headology.

A Key, an Egg is a stand-alone (so far), but I think it would make a great TV series: Marley Jacobs also reminds me of Jessica Fletcher.

Provenance by Anne Leckie is set in the same universe and basic time-frame as the Imperial Radch trilogy, but without any (direct) connection to it. Leckie is still playing games with gender, but more subtly than in the trilogy. In Provenance the protagonist is both gendered female and decidedly feminine: an important aspect of the book is her (and the reader) struggling to see her as competent and potentially powerful, even though she starts out coming across as a ditz. It's also a mystery story and a heist, about memory, inheritance, and the way they're constructed, not just given as external facts. Good story, good characters, good book.

An e-friend mentioned reading the Astreiant novels. The first ones were written in the late 90s by Melissa Scott and her late partner Lisa A. Barnett; Scott has now picked up the series again and is writing more.

I am super happy, because these turn out to be Just the Soothing Ticket for me. They're fantasies where astrology actually works, set on a planet with two suns (so the relevant calculations are non-trivial). Magical ability isn't, well, *magical* in the usual sense: it's a skill that can be trained in people with the right talents, like surgery or knitting are for us.

It's also a matriarchal world, where women hold most positions of power and respect (though not all: seafaring and other jobs that involve travel are "man's work", and there seem to be more men than women soldiers). Along with that, a very large number of people are in same-sex relationships: it's not quite Everyone Is Gay Because I Said So La-La-La Land, but it's *really* relaxed.

Our Heroes are a rumpled policeman and a handsome mercenary, and it was only when Scott said something on her Patreon that I realized why the current book covers look kind of familiar:

It's Professionals fanfic, with the serial numbers filed off and super-AU! The Professionals, known familiarly as "Pros", has the distinction (I think) of being the most fannishly significant TV show that has never been broadcast in the US.

You absolutely don't need to know anything about Pros to enjoy the books. Astreiant, the city where the series is set, is reminiscent of 16th-century Amsterdam, a bustling, multicultural metropolis struggling toward modernity. Scott's prose is very sense-laden, with vivid descriptions of places, weather, meals, and people. Where A Key, an Egg reminded me of Pratchett in the humor and the witchery, Astreiant reminds me of Ankh-Morpork, and Nico of Vimes. Down these mean cobblestones a man must go, but at least he has another man with him.

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss *also* scratches my Pratchett-itch (I sense a theme ...), in this case with witty supernatural creatures and urban hijinks. In 19th century London, Mary Jekyll starts tracking down some of her late father's scientific acquaintances -- Frankenstein, Rappacinni, Moreau, Hyde -- and finding their daughters, instead. It's the League of Extraordinary Gentlewomen (although several will scoff at the name), with bonus Holmes and Watson.

This book is a Getting-the-Band-Together romp, with an unconventional multi-POV style (writer plus peanut gallery) and the setup for future novels, which I anticipate with pleasure. Next stop, Transylvania!

A quick note about Provenance: while it is written as a stand-alone book, there is political discussion of what is going on back in the Radch that contains major spoilers about the ending of the Ancillary trilogy. People who haven't finished the trilogy might want to keep that in mind. (And that said, I very much enjoyed Provenance.)

the Luggage doesn't talk. It is intelligent, apparently multidimensional, automotive being that apparently nourishes itself by eating persons who are trying to harm its owner. However, while the Luggage is capable of gestures and certain level of communication, it definitely doesn't talk.

In fact, the Luggage is probably one of the truest examples of positively-described "Other". It has, again apparently, a true blue-organge morality, it doesn't really have normal compulsions of earthly animals or humans, and it cannot be communicated with. What makes it "positive" is that it seems to be loyal to its owner, its homicidal, ultra-violent bouts of rage usually target unsympathetic persons and it is actually a pretty good suitcase. This probably tells more about ourselves than about sapient pearwood.

I bought and read Provenance when it came out. Then yesterday I bought it again, realizing only when I got home and saw the first copy that I had messed up. I have trouble with names, both of books and of authors. People I know, too... sometimes.

I will read it again, I do that with good books. Melissa Scott sounds good. I'm not sure I've read previous novels she wrote but I will look into that.